Penny: They are, without a doubt, absolutely everywhere in SoCal. Although they're not impossible to kill (I've managed it), they are pretty gosh darn hardy. To the best of my knowledge, the kind you find pretty much anywhere is just a regular old C. ovata. Some cuttings do seem to have a strange knack for variations from their parent plants and from each other. The one featured in these photos is just a C. ovata; I have pictures of other ovatas that aren't doing what this one is doing. Some of it is exposure to sunlight and cold. My mom has another jade that's just this gorgeous emerald green, with only a tiny bit of coloring on the one little part that catches direct sunlight. I have a few that used to get 100% full sun and turned a remarkable red-burgundy-brown color. It's fairly odd, some of the things jade will do. :) *CG*

Thank you all - they are definitely very me whatever that is. I actually had more of a color scheme going originally but somehow they have multiplied into every color and I like it. I do have more pastels in the front and hotter colors as you move behind the deck. The house is not really that big but it's spread out and has a lot of volume. I really like things rather neat if you can imagine that with all this disorder and I like to see a repetition down the garden of something that is starring at the moment - daffodils in a similar tone in the spring, then the peonies and iris, then the daylilies, later it's asters and phlox. You know the funny thing about that CindySunshine name is I totally made it up as I was registering on gardenweb out of nothing - but I am definitely a sunshine girl always have loved summer and sunshine. If you look at that first picture with the front borders, I am standing on the driveway - if you look thru the daylilies (and BTW that is "Cherry Chapeau" that is the brilliant burst of color in the foreground) past the flowers around the lamppost and then the line of big trees, that's where the orchard is - you drive up through it as you go up toward the house. If you turn to your left that's where the butterfly garden is that I posted earlier. We built the house 20 years ago - we literally crawled thru the brush and hacked things down to find that there was a lovely spot up here to build. I was thrilled to find the combination of trees in the background, but sunny areas around the house for my gardens. The ground was really not very good at all - we built it up mostly with just work, compost, mulch, weeding, weeding, weeding, weeding - sometimes I feel like I've spent half my life weeding - LOL. Here's the vegie garden a couple weeks ago before the corn got so tall... Quick view of the pond - I took this several weeks ago (notice the same gazing ball that is now engulfed in stuff in those shots this morning - I was worried at the time about the pedestel it stood on and whether I should paint it - like why bother - LOL. And finally behind the deck - I took this in the spring right after the japanese maples leafed out - my easiest least maintenance area of the garden - all I do is put a handful of fertilizer around them in the spring. They don't even ever get watered, hostas do great. Thank you all. :)

ROFLMBO!!!!!! Oh my goodness!!! Armageddon, I did the touching the face after handling it was either Habs or Pequins I think it was (I am VERY fair skinned...some freckles on my armes but that is it, otherwise fairer than a newborn babies butt!!) I felt like my suncreen needed a boost so I just poured it in my hands and went to put it on and went for the face first...I was underneath the freezing cold water in the shower, using the hand held nozzle an inch from my face for at least 15 min!! You are not the first guy to tell me about the going to the bathroom mistake...Oh my gosh, guys you got me on that one (thank goodness) I cannot imagine that pain nor do I want to!! But it makes me ever more mindful that that would be an excrutiatingly painful experience for me as well so I intend not to make it! I told my husband just like anyone else I imagine some people can have reactions to the super hots, while some of the less experienced who don't realize exactly what they are getting into may try one and just totally freak out with fear not realizing what they were going to experience. People have to be totally aware of what these super hots are capable of doing to a person!! Especially an inexperienced on!!! We laugh and joke and carry on about them but that is because ya'll have built up a tolerance to them. I have had abdominal surgery - I know I can never eat anything like that EVER, my youngest son has cystic fibrosis... because it messes with his pancreas, I don't know if eating super hots for him would be a good thing. On the other hand JJ has a metabolism that WON'T STOP!! I can't keep food in the house because of him!!! He is a bottomless pit!! So he has this metabolism that has allowed him to work up a tolerance like his Uncle to jalapenos and crushed red pepperon any food he eats!! It is a circus in this house!!! I just hope someone reads these before ever trying a super hot and talks to someone first...someone experienced. It is definitely NOT something to be triffled with!!!!! Jo

Renofan - You did a fantastic job on that chair, and I think you should go ahead and do the little chair in the yellow toile, too. That's the fabric that I used to make my bedroom duvet and curtains, (the thread is "I've got the blues...thanks to you"). You'll find that this fabric is very reasonably priced, yet a good, sturdy fabric to work with. I also used the yellow duck ticking fabric from the same site, FashionFabricsClub.com. Wouldn't you know I have 4 wingback chairs that are in excellent condition, but all have old fabric on them that I can't stand. Two of them, in fact, resemble what your wingback looked like before. Thanks to you, and the website that you furnished on upholstering, I now know what project I plan to tackle next! I know I'll never match your speed or expertise in these projects, but at least I can make an attempt. Your motivation inspires me to get my butt off this chair and start searching for more fabric. Now I can't wait to see your little toile chair, and if you ever need to find a home for it once it's done, I have a bedroom that would love to adopt it....lol! Beautiful job!! Heidi